Anime roundup 9/21/2017: Up Against It

Magical Circle Guru-Guru #11 –Guru-Guru is in particularly fine form this week as Nike is able to work out a deal to finally get some training from a mentor of his own class. His newfound talent for improvised traps and pranks may not have helped him yet, but it’s a perfect outgrowth of his personality.

A new quest intrudes with the arrival of a genuine princess, looking for help retrieving an artifact to thwart yet another evil adviser. Unfortunately, evil advisers tend to be pretty smart, and Nike has pulled off his best prank yet, and the problem becomes one of retrieving the artifact yet again, this time from a castle full of heavy artillery. Luckily, with the reappearance of Juju, Nameless Dark Magic Lady, and President Dog… well… they’ll work something out.

The classic geek reference count is staying high as well. Princess Stovepot is a dead ringer for Princess Peach of the Super Mario franchise, the ecstatic group leaping session at the end includes poses from JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, and see that bit in blue on the chalkboard above? That’s a famous incantation known as the Konami Code.

Chronos Ruler #11 – Everyone squares off against their assigned opponents, and embarks on a classic one-upping, attack-explaining, shōnen-style battle. Blaze is hit in his vulnerable spot by Martial Arts Guy’s tragic backstory, but recovers to take down the human-Horologue hybrid with a traditional mixture of about 10% sneakiness, 90% sheer force of will.

Mīna’s match is the most interesting, and not just because we learn something new about the powers of the descendants of Chronos. There is definitely some secret she doesn’t want revealed— apparently something not known to anyone back at home base, or to Victor in his current state. But apparently the keepers of Couljours do know it, so how did they find out? Was she with him on his final mission?

And finally, the main event: Kiri vs. the main Horologue. Kiri is not strong enough to do this on his own, so we’ll have to hope this finally shocks Victor into action. Note that his blood doesn’t have the same effect on Horologues as Mīna’s does. That might be a sign that he’s not really her son, or maybe it’s another part of the powers that don’t manifest until age 18.

18if #11 – This week’s director is stuck with the unfortunate task of assembling a clip show, with a whole lot of talking in between the clips. But it is some fascinating talk, setting up the stakes for the finale.

It is agreed by all parties that the “real” world is in fact the dream of one specific dreamer, and that dreamer is the Biblical Eve. Now, anime’s knowledge of Judaeo-Christian myth is very scattershot, but one additional thing you can count on it to know about the creation story is Lilith. Or Lily, as I expect we know her here.

Lily wants to kill Eve to keep the world as it is. The cult wants Eve to be able to wake up eventually, to bring about a better world. The witches have a perspective they want to share with Kanzaki, possibly to explain whose story is closer to the truth (perhaps neither).

And then there’s still the question of Yūrina. Who is her “true self” in the dream world? It’s got to be Lily, Haruto, or Eve at this point—maybe more than one of them. There’s a lot to answer next week.

Made in Abyss #11 – Sure enough, even though Riko’s arm was hacked almost completely off last week, this week it’s still attached enough for Nanachi and her home remedies to sort out. A little cleaning, a little stitching, a magic enema (because, with the unhealthy obsession this show has with the contents of people’s underpants, of course someone was going to have an enema at some point), and she’ll be almost as good as new soon.

One fetch-quest later, Reg is sent off again to do laundry when he finds Nanachi’s collection of graves. In the course of defending herself from becoming a lab specimen, Nanachi has racked up quite the body count. But it brings to mind the memory of another gravesite nearby—Lyza’s. He definitely met Lyza at some point, and he knows she has a grave marker in this part of the Fourth Layer.

If this layer brings a memory of parting ways with Lyza to mind, does that mean she made it back this far alive? In that case, in what form? I hope it wasn’t being hinted that Mitty is what she became…

Katsugeki Touken Ranbu #12 – In an entirely predictable move, Kanesada is unable to strike Kunihiro down. In a less predictable one, Saniwa, apprised of the situation, decides to let Kunihiro go ahead with his plan.

Thus Saniwa, Kanesada, and Mutsunokami skip ahead to the Battle of Hakodate, the last stand of Toshizō Hijikata and the Edo Republic itself. There they find Kunihiro serving as Hijikata’s aide. They also find enough Retrograde Army minions materializing to provide one huge series-ending battle royale. This should not be too big a deal to handle, given the number of people lounging around back at the Citadel, but probably there is some hand-wavy reason that only a maximum of six warriors can be brought back to any given time.

What can be done to placate Kunihiro, yet still keep some semblance of the timeline we know? I’ll bet on Hijikata’s death being faked, so that history is still technically preserved.